


You Will Go To Space Today

by bythepowerofphysics



Category: Secondfloor RPF
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 23:29:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2559731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bythepowerofphysics/pseuds/bythepowerofphysics





	You Will Go To Space Today

The starship practically sparkled under the cool white lights of Deep Space 1’s docking bay. Alice raised her head to look at it in awe, seeing her own reflection distorted in the curved casings of the ion thrusters. Sharp black letters painted on the side of the hull spelled “BT-001 VANGUARD”. 

The _Vanguard_ hung in the air, oscillating up and down almost imperceptibly against the ramps that connected it to the gangway. The gravity generators kept it suspended midway between the floor and ceiling of the cavernous room. 

Blue running lights glowed along the ship’s sides, embedded in the polished hull panels, highlighting its elegant streamlined design. This was the flagship of the Alliance. And it was not Alice’s destination. 

Alice proceeded down the gangway, alongside Jason, First Deck Officer of Deep Space 1. As they approached the second sector of the docking bay, a smaller shape came into view from behind the majestic _Vanguard_. 

“Alice, welcome to the SC _Admirable_ ,” Jason announced, gesturing towards the craft. Smaller, but still not small; Alice guessed the _Admirable_ would support a crew of about fifty, as opposed to the _Vanguard_ ’s two hundred. The ship’s name wasn’t visible. The recycled metallic panels of the hull had been beaten into shape and scrubbed clean, but were as yet unpainted and unlabelled. Its blocky shape reminded her of somehow of early 21st century architecture. It gave the impression of an unremarkable low office building but with ion thrusters bolted on, while somehow appearing only moderately unwieldy. 

As the ship’s new helm officer, Alice’s eyes were drawn to those thrusters for a moment. The engines were of an older design, refurbished like much of the rest of the _Admirable_. It would never be at the front of the fleet, but so long as the power systems were kept in good condition Alice judged that the ship would be able to keep up. 

Jason scanned the tablet he was holding. “Most of the crew aren’t on board, but you should be able to meet the Engineering— oh, actually, it’s your brother.” 

At that point, the sound of a power drill inside the hull stopped, and Alice indeed saw her brother, Engineering Officer Angus, step out of the side airlock. Angus was dressed casually in a T-shirt and jeans, but what he lacked in “officer”, he made up for in “engineering”. Hopefully. 

Angus lifted cheap safety goggles from his face. “Hello! Also hi Jason!” 

Jason saluted, and stepped back. “Hi! I should get going. I’m really busy today; we have three launches tomorrow. You could give Alice the tour of the ship?” 

He nodded “Yeah, ok,” and led Alice up the ramp into the _Admirable_ ’s airlock. Alice looked down through the grating of the ramp under her feet. Although the docking bay’s external doors were closed, and she could see the solid floor far below, she still felt like she was stepping off the Deep Space 1 station and taking the first step of a new journey. 

“So how’s it going?”Alice asked. 

“Well, you will not go to space today. But maybe tomorrow!” Angus glanced at the open power converter panel he’d been working on, as he and Alice climbed the stairs towards the bridge. 

“What’s that a reference to, again?” 

“It’s that xkcd comic with Up Goer Five, where he tries to explain a spaceship with only simple words.” 

“Oh yeah, I remember that one.” 

The main door to the bridge slid open halfway and scraped to a stop. 

“Ummm, yeah, there’s still some stuff that needs… stuff…”Angus said. “But the essential things mostly work?” 

Alice let her eyes wander around the bridge. It did seem that the essential things were working. The five bridge consoles were illuminated, and Facebook was open on the main screen. 

After she had tested her helm console (and just as importantly, her comfortable chair), the two-person tour proceeded aft from the bridge. They ascended the stairs further. The top deck smelled new, with polished floors and freshly renovated sleeping quarters. 

“Why are you even on this ship?” Alice wondered. “Couldn’t you get, like…” 

“Something better? Something where the bridge door opens all the way, and they’ve actually bothered to paint the ship’s name on the hull? Yeah, but then I’d have to work with competent ambitious people, and they’d have, like, expectations and stuff, and I’d feel intimidated.” 

After passing through the recreation room, holodeck and kitchen, and the central deck where Angus said “the interesting stuff happens”, the brief tour was over. 

Angus waved, watching Alice step out through the airlock. “Thanks for coming to check out the ship. I’ve got a bit more work to do here, but I’ll come hang out later. By then we might actually have a captain! Oh yeah, can you take this to Jason? It’s just the engineering report, saying we’re approximately ready to fly.” 

He handed her a form, on which he’d jokingly handwritten “Up Goer Five” in the name field at the top. “It’s ok, no one actually needs the names on these forms; they’re all indexed by serial number.” 

Alice nodded. “See you at Second Floor later?” 

“Yeah, sure.”


End file.
